Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Ariana Grande top Billboard year-end charts

Drake Reigns Supreme on Top Artists Ranking

Billboard has unveiled its full list of year-end music charts for 2018, including Top Artist, Top New Artist, Hot 100 Songs and Billboard 200 Albums, featuring Drake, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and more. Canadian singer-rapper Drake ruled the charts this year, leading the year-end Top Artists ranking with the success of his Billboard 200-topping album Scorpion and its many hit singles on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, including the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 song of the year, “God’s Plan.” Drake is the first rap act to be the overall Top Artist of the year since 50 Cent in 2005, and just the third rap artist to ever lead the category, after 50 Cent and Nelly.

Following a male-dominated 2017, in which men swept the entire top ten, female artists took center stage as three women finished in the top ten on the Top Artists tally. Taylor Swift — the year’s top female artist — is the highest ranking woman on the overall Top Artists tally at No. 4, joined by the year’s top new artist, Cardi B, at No. 5, Camila Cabello at No. 10, Ariana Grande (No. 14), Dua Lipa (No. 19) and Halsey (No. 20).

“The year-end Billboard charts highlight the breadth of genres that resonated with music fans in 2018,” says Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard’s SVP of Charts and Data Development. “The Billboard charts are the most well-respected and comprehensive rankings in music and have helped define musical careers for nearly 80 years. In 2018, established superstar acts continued their dominance and new acts like Cardi B, Dua Lipa and K-pop group BTS burst onto the scene.”

Billboard’s year-end music recaps are based on chart performance on Billboard’s charts dated December 2, 2017 to November 17, 2018. The year-end Top Artists category ranks the best-performing acts of the year based on activity on the Billboard 200 albums tally and the Billboard Hot 100 Songs list, as well as streaming, social media and Billboard Boxscore data. Data registered before or after a title’s chart run is not considered in these standings. That methodology detail, and the December-to-November time period, account for some of the differences between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Nielsen Music.

Please see below for a full Year-End breakdown of the following Billboard charts: Top Artists, Hot 100 Songs Billboard 200 Albums, and Top New Artists:

Top Artists

Drake

Post Malone

Ed Sheeran

Taylor Swift

Cardi B

XXXTentacion

Imagine Dragons

BTS

Bruno Mars

Camila Cabello

Billboard Hot 100 Songs

“God’s Plan,” Drake

“Perfect,” Ed Sheeran

“Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line

“Havana,” Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug

“Rockstar,” Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage

“Psycho,” Post Malone Featuring Ty Dolla $ign

“I Like It,” Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin

“The Middle,” Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey

“In My Feelings,” Drake

“Girls Like You,” Maroon 5 Featuring Cardi B

Billboard 200 Albums

Reputation, Taylor Swift

Scorpion, Drake

beerbongs & bentleys, Post Malone

The Greatest Showman Soundtrack

÷ (Divide), Ed Sheeran

Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B

Astroworld, Travis Scott

Stoney, Post Malone

?, XXXTentacion

Culture II, Migos

Top New Artists

Cardi B

XXXTentacion

Juice WRLD

Dua Lipa

6ix9ine

Author: Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites.